Several capital improvement requests were discussed at a special El Dorado City Council Finance Committee meeting Thursday, where city departments listed the needed items for 2019.
Capital improvement requests totaled about $2.2 million, which included requests from sanitation, recycling, street, police and fire departments.
The sanitation department requested a total of $645,000, which includes a new rear load garbage truck, a new automated garbage truck and a trash truck.
The street department requested $225,000, which includes an 18-yard dump truck, a patch roller and a new pickup truck.
The El Dorado Police Department requested a camera system, five vehicles and new radios, totaling over $316,000.
The El Dorado Fire Department requested personal protective equipment, totaling $30,000; a rescue pumper, which will replace a 27-year-old fire engine for $725,000 and a new command vehicle for $50,000.
Fire Chief Chad Mosby told the council that the items listed for the fire department were prioritized in order of importance.
“I presented a list of things that the fire department needs and I would hope that y’all would consider funding those,” Mosby said. “If you can’t fund it, then we will do what needs to be done to make it through until we can fund it.”
Capt. Michael Leveritt with the El Dorado Police Department said the department doesn’t ask for anything they don’t need.
“We never go in asking for eight cars hoping we get four,” Leveritt said. “If we need five, we need five.”
The requests were debated among committee members until a definitive answer was given on how much was in city reserves; the answer was $5.5 million. After learning that, all capital improvement requests were approved by the committee to be brought to the city council meeting next week.
Kaitlyn Rigdon can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].